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Heating Things Up…While Keeping Our Cool!
STM Newsletter - January 2021
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Updates: Stay safe and warm this winter by joining your fellow STM colleagues in the first annual exercise challenge!
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Perhaps you are familiar with the positive impacts that exercise and hyperthermia have on improving your immune response?
Hyperthermia and exercise can also improve your brain!:
Repeated hyperthermia exposure increases circulating Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor levels which is associated with improved quality of life, and reduced anxiety: A randomized controlled trial https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtherbio.2019.102482
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Sign up to participate in this fun virtual event in January and February.
Challenge your mentor, your mentees, your colleagues, or yourself. Log the time and type of exercise you perform weekly. Walk, run, bike, row, climb steps, or lift weights; do any exercise that makes you feel good! Then tell us about it!
Cost: $30, which includes an STM t-shirt
All participants will also be entered in a raffle to win an STM themed prize.
To challenge a fellow STM member, ask them and email nlevi@wakehealth.edu to let STM know what challenge has been accepted.
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Current challenges:
Krishna Ramajayam: 15 miles walking per week
Nicole Levi: 250 kettlebell swings and 10 mi walking per week
Rajiv Chopra: 30km of biking per week
Mark Dewhirst: 15 mi walking per week
Raquel Martinez: 1 hr capoeira and 3 hrs yoga per week
Dieter Haemmerich: bike 100 miles in 3 weeks
Jennifer Yu: 250 miles of biking per month
Rohan Fernandes: 250 pushups per month
This 2 month long virtual challenge event will culminate in a virtual symposium in March on participant accomplishments and scientific content on exercise, thermal medicine and the immune response. Proceeds from the event will support junior investigators and early career STM memberships.
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On behalf of the Society for Thermal Medicine, we wish you a Happy Chinese New Year beginning February 12th.
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2021 is the year of the Metal Ox, signifying a year of hard work, discipline and prosperity.
STM wishes all members a happy and prosperous year!
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Updates: The Minorities and Women in Science Committees Mentorship Program
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Junior scientists: Do you want to learn more about how to advance your careers in academia or industry? Having a mentor can help you find your path! Join senior STM members virtually for 1 on 1 monthly mentoring.
The initiative is open to ALL members of the Society regardless of background; however, the Committees strongly encourage female and minority members to take part.
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Membership - Support STM during this critical time
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Don’t let your STM membership lapse! Even though we are not having an in-person meeting until next year, STM is planning a series of virtual symposia and webinars to spread our knowledge, develop new ideas, and engage with one another. Now is a critical time to show your support for STM and rebuild your connections.
Membership in The Society for Thermal Medicine is open to anyone interested in the study of thermal medicine.
Membership rights and privileges include:
- Participating in society elections
- Committee service
- Access to restricted “members-only” areas of the STM website
- Discount on ICHO 2021 registration fees
- Free registration to all STM webinars/mini-symposia
- A 30% discount on IJH article submission fees
- Complementary sponsorship of 2 junior investigators
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In conjunction with renewing your STM membership start the New Year off on the right foot: Participate in the STM virtual exercise challenge!
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One of the best ways that STM members can come together is to renew their membership and get ready to participate in the upcoming monthly webinars and symposia. Virtual events will be interactive in real-time so STM members can engage with the speakers and foster good dialogue. Presentations will also be recorded so all members can enjoy this free content. STM is excited for the new webinar format that will allow for thermal medicine researchers from all across the world to actively participate!
We apologize to our members that there has been a temporary set-back with posting the content from the previous virtual sessions on the STM webpage. Until the issue can be resolved, please contact nlevi@wakehealth.edu or rfernandes@email.gwu.edu for access to the content from previous STM virtual sessions.
Upcoming virtual events include:
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February 10th, 2021 (11am-1pm EST): STM will partner with the American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery (ASLMS) for a joint symposium on Cell stress pathways and energy-based devices. This event will be offered for Continuing Medical Education credit through ASLMS. This event is free for STM members!
Speakers:
- Dieter Manstein and Nicole Levi: Welcome of STM and ASLMS members
- Michael Graner: Heat stress and heat shock proteins
- John Pearce: Biological heat transfer
- Erik Cressman: Energy based devices
- Betsy Repasky: Body temperature and thermoregulation: Some basics on physiology and immunology
- Steve Fiering: Anti-tumor immune responses
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March (date and time TBD): Virtual symposium on the benefits of exercise induced hyperthermia. Speakers and registration details to be announced soon!
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April (date and time TBD): STM and ASLMS will partner for the second joint symposium. The topic for this event is Photothermal Nanoparticles and will be free for STM members.
Speakers:
- Robert Griffin: Gold photothermal nanoparticles for cancer and bacteria
- Kaushal Rege: Gold nanoparticles for wound sealing
- Nicole Levi: Photothermal polymer nanoparticles
- Rohan Fernandes: Prussian blue nanoparticles and immune responses
- Kanav Khosla: Using photothermal nanoparticles for warming cryopreserved tissues
- Ravi Singh: Photothermal sensitization of breast cancer to radiation
Registration details coming soon!
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May (date and time TBD): Chris Diedrich and Rohan Fernandes are coordinating a symposium on focused ultrasound. Details will be provided soon!
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June (date and time TBD): STM will partner with the Society for Neuro-Oncology for a joint session on thermal therapies for brain tumors. Details will be provided soon!
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ICHO occurs every four years and combines expertise from three partnering societies: the Asian Society of Hyperthermic Oncology (ASHO), the Society for Thermal Medicine (STM), and the European Society for Hyperthermic Oncology (ESHO).
The deadline for abstract submission is April 30, 2021
Topics include:
•Clinical hyperthermia trials
•Cryotherapy
•Emerging hyperthermia biology
•Experimental hyperthermia studies
•High intensity focused ultrasound hyperthermia technology
•HIPEC and HIVEC
•Hyperthermia in pediatrics
•Image guidance
•Mild hyperthermia
•Modeling, treatment planning and optimization
•MR imaging & thermometry
•Nanoparticles hyperthermia & ablation techniques
•Nanotechnology and drug delivery
•Novel targeted drug delivery approaches
•Radiation/Chemo + hyperthermia
•Radiofrequency and microwave electromagnetic hyperthermia technology
•Temperature monitoring
•Thermal ablation biology
•Thermal ablation devices (RF, MW, Laser)
•Thermal dose and treatment outcome
•Thermal therapies
•Vendor presentations
•other topics
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If you have suggestions for how we can better improve STM as we delve together into these new plans, please reach out, and let us know:
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Call for Committee Members
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STM is seeking your help in contributing to editing the monthly newsletter. This would be an opportunity to contribute and build your CV. Inquire with Nicole Levi-Polyachenko, nlevi@wakehealth.edu.
STM now has two new committees that would welcome the participation of junior and established members:
- Minorities in STM (chaired by Rajiv Chopra and Raquel Martinez) and
- Women in STM (chaired by Nicole Levi and Colleen Crouch)
We encourage you to become more involved in STM through participation in these committees! Contact stm@allenpress.com to sign up.
STM has a new member's only jobs section on our website, for both industry and academic positions. NEW Jobs have recently been posted! Please note, in order to access the jobs page you must be signed in as an active STM member.
Send any jobs wanted or job postings to stm@allenpress.com and we will add them to the website. Please contact us if you have any questions/concerns.
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International Journal of Hyperthermia Updates
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IJH is always interested in innovative ideas to increase the breadth of the journal and we strongly hope that the special issues venue will help in the expansion. We are open to additional Industry-Sponsored or Foundation sponsored Special Issues. Please let us know if you have an idea for one!
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We are excited to announce that IJH has an Open Call for papers on: Image guided therapies for treatment of colorectal cancer metastases
This Special Issue will focus on use of image guided therapies for treatment of colorectal cancer metastases. A very prestigious list of key authors have agreed to participate. We invite you to submit a paper on the broad subject of "Image guided therapies for treatment of colorectal cancer metastases", for potential inclusion within the Special Issue, pending successful peer review.
Listed below are the invited authors and manuscript titles that will be included.
- Matthew Callstrom: Mayo Clinic, “Ablation for Oligometastatic CRC disease in non-hepatic/non-pulmonary sites”
- Thierry DeBaere: Institute Gustave Roussy, “Ablation in Hepatic and Pulmonary oligometastatic disease”
- Bruno Odisio and Constantinos Sofocleous: MD Anderson Cancer Center & Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, “Liver metatastases: Rationale, indications and outcomes of thermal ablation as a local curative therapy: When should it be used instead of resection”.
- Raj Narayanan: Baptists Health - Miami Cardiac and Vascular Institute, “IRE for CRC Liver Metastases: Indications and Outcomes”
- Robert Lewandowski: Northwestern University, “Y90 radiation segmentectomy in CRC metastatic disease: Rationale, Indications and Outcomes”
- Ali Hosni Abdalaty and Laura Dawson: Princess Margaret Cancer Center, “IMRT/SBRT/Proton therapy: Indications and evidence for treatment of CRC metastases”
- Juan Camacho, Stephen B. Solomon: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, "Pulmonary Metastases: Rationale, Indications and Outcomes of thermal ablation”
- Stephen Hunt: University of Pennsylvania, “Molecular Imaging, a valuable tool in Management of Colorectal Metastatic Disease by Interventional Oncology”.
View the call for papers and submit your manuscript HERE.
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Featured International Journal of Hyperthermia Articles
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Noninvasive intratumoral thermal dose determination during in vivo magnetic nanoparticle hyperthermia: combining surface temperature measurements and computer simulation
Abstract
Purpose
Noninvasive thermometry during magnetic nanoparticle hyperthermia (MNH) remains a challenge. Our pilot study proposes a methodology to determine the noninvasive intratumoral thermal dose during MNH in the subcutaneous tumor model.
Methods
Two groups of Ehrlich bearing-mice with solid and subcutaneous carcinoma, a control group (n = 6), and a MNH treated group (n = 4) were investigated. Histopathology was used to evaluate the percentage of non-viable lesions in the tumor. MNH was performed at 301 kHz and 17.5 kA.m−1, using a multifunctional nanocarrier. Surface temperature measurements were obtained using an infrared camera, where an ROI with 750 pixels was used for comparison with computer simulations. Realistic simulations of the bioheat equation were obtained by combining histopathology intratumoral lesion information and surface temperature agreement of at least 50% of the pixel’s temperature data calculated and measured at the surface.
Results
One animal of the MNH group showed tumor recurrence, while two others showed complete tumor remission (monitored for 585 days). Sensitivity analysis of the simulation parameters indicated low tumor blood perfusion. Numerical simulations indicated, for the animals with complete remission, an irreversible tissue injury of 91 ± 5% and 100%, while the one with recurrence had a lower value, 56 ± 7%. The computer simulations also revealed the in vivo heat efficiency of the nanocarrier.
Conclusion
A new methodology for determining noninvasively the three-dimensional intratumoral thermal dose during MNH was developed. The method demonstrates the potential for predicting the long-term preclinical outcome of animals treated with MNH.
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Fever-range hyperthermia promotes cGAS-STING pathway and synergizes DMXAA-induced antiviral immunit
Abstract
Background: Fever-range hyperthermia or fever-range temperature (hereafter FRT) improves survival and shortens disease duration in microbial infections. However, the mechanisms of these beneficial effects still remain elusive. We hypothesized that FRT might enhance cell responsiveness to infections by promoting cGAS-STING signaling to cause enhanced production of IFN-β.
Objective: To investigate the effect fever-range hyperthermia on cGAS-STING pathway.
Methods: RAW 264.7 and cGAS-/- RAW 264.7 cells, stimulated with 5μg/ml herring testis DNA (htDNA), were heated to 39.5°C and analyzed for the expression of cGAS, STING, IFN-β, and the synthesis of cGAMP and IRF3 phosphorylation. In vivo, wild type C57BL/6J mice were subjected to whole body hyperthermia (WBH) at 39.5°C. The mice were then challenged with influenza virus and analyzed for antiviral response in term of IFN-β expression, body weight and survival.
Results: We found that 39.5°C FRT upregulated the expression of cGAS and STING, and induced the synthesis of cGAMP and production of IFN-β in htDNA-transfected RAW 264.7 cells more potently as compared to 37°C. Moreover, FRT+DMXAA-treated cells were better protected from vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV)-induced cytotoxicity in vitro in contrast to the nonprotected control (no FRT and DMXAA) or DMXAA treatment alone. In vivo, FRT at 39.5°C, co-administered with DMXAA, significantly induced the expression of IFN-β, showed reduced weight loss mice and exhibited 25% more survival over the course of 14 days as compared to DMXAA treated mice 37°C.
Conclusion: We conclude that fever-range hyperthermia promotes cGAS-STING pathway to cause increased expression of IFN-β and mediate its antiviral effects.
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Clinical treatment of intra-epithelia cervical neoplasia with photodynamic therapy
Abstract
Objectives
This clinical study was developed to primarily evaluate the Complete Cytopathological Response Rate of Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasms to PDT using chitosan nanocapsules containing Chlorocyan-aluminum phthalocyanine as a photoactive agent. Analyses of the Free Recurrence Interval, toxicity profile (immediate and late), and complications (immediate and late), were secondarily analyzed.
Methods
This study was previously approved by the National Council of Ethics in Research of Brazil (CONEP), on May 28, 2014, under case number 19182113.4.0000.5009. On the surface of the cervix of each selected patient was applied one mL of the formulated gel, and after 30 min, the light was applied. Reports or the identification of adverse effects and/or complications were observed in follow-up visits, in addition to the collection of cervical oncotic cytology.
Results
Out of the total group, 11 (91.7%) primarily treated patients evolved with negative cervical oncotic cytology as soon as in the first evaluation following treatment, and one did not achieve any therapeutic benefit, even after reapplication. Two patients with initially positive response presented cytological recurrence determined by histopathology. A new round of PDT was developed, and both evolved with cytological remission three weeks later, remaining negative until the last follow-up. No important side effects were observed in all the patients.
Conclusions
Our trial demonstrates that treatment of CIN 1 and 2 lesions using our PDT formulation is feasible and safe. Large randomized clinical trials are required to establish efficacy.
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